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Saved by the Cover: Rediscovering Amelia E. Barr
Although she has now fallen into obscurity, at the beginning of the 20th century Amelia E. Barr [1831-1919] was one of the most popular female authors in America. After seeing a few exceptional publishers' bindings on her novels, Minsky started searching for other titles. He found 70 books issued between 1882 and 1919, some in several different editions, that provide a marvelous set of publishers' bindings representing the transition of cover art from Eastlake post-Victorian styling to Arts and Crafts, Japonisme, Art Nouveau and Poster style. Other formats change our perception of the texts. We see her novel Thyra Varrick in the original manuscript, and as a 1903 illustrated magazine serialization among advertisements for corsets and household supplies. This takes a romance set in 18th century Scotland and, for us, places it in the material culture of turn-of-the-century America.
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